By Roy Hezron
Thousands of school teachers can now breath a sigh of relief after Teachers Service Commission (TSC) suspended the delocalization of teachers due to Covid 19 situation in the country.
Speaking during the release of the Commission’s survey titled Teacher Preparedness for Term 1, 2021-2022 School Opening on July 26, 2021 at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), the Commission’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Nancy Macharia said only transfers forced by natural factors will be effected.
It was believed that up to 4, 000 teachers were to be delocalized this term. Most of those targeted were school heads and their deputies serving in their own home counties as well as those who had served in the same station for at most 9 years.
The delocalization policy has been a controversial issue and has caused protests among teachers.
Level of Teacher Preparedness
Regarding the level of teacher preparedness, the Commission’s survey showed that 99.0 percent of teachers are aware of Ministry of Health (MoH) guidelines on Covid-19.
3,249 teachers (80.9 %) could access running water to wash their hands. They however cited challenges in accessing water as follows: 871 teachers (26.8%) identified inadequate facilities, 678 respondents (20.9%) cited inadequate running water, 578(17.8%) teachers cited dry boreholes, 573 respondents (17.6%) cited drought while 549 teachers (16.9%) cited long distance from water sources.
The objective of the survey was to determine the level of teacher preparedness in the management of Covid 19 during school resumption and how teachers are prepared to support learners adhere to Covid-19 measures.
2,306 teachers (20.9%) used sanitizers. 1,265 (54.9%) said sanitizers are too expensive and re restricted for use by staff and visitors only.
Dr. Macharia urged teachers to continue observing the Covid 19 measures.
Schools reopened on July 26, 2021 for the first term of the 2021 academic calendar . The calendar is an adjustment of the traditional January- December school cycle that was altered by the closure of learning institutions in March last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Term 1 ends on October 1, 2021 and learners will have a week’s break from before resuming for the second term which will run until December 23, 2021. Third term will run from January 3 to March 4 of 2022.
Term 1 Possible Challenges
The survey indicated that 30 per cent of teachers were also concerned about how Covid-19 would be managed in overcrowded schools as the country anticipates the fourth wave of the disease.
23 per cent of teachers predicted a rush to cover the syllabus as one of the major hurdles they face this term and 13 per cent of teachers predicted a greatly increased workload caused by the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) which is now in Grade 5.
Secondary schools will also be anticipating a surge in population with the Form 1 students admission that begun on August 2 2021.
Over stretched infrastructure and congestion in schools was another challenge cited.
“We are aware that with the return of all 15 million learners to the classrooms, resources will be more constrained. As teachers, we must adopt more innovative measures to ensure learners get quality teaching,” noted Dr. Macharia.
To ease congestion, the TSC boss revealed that the Commission will be posting 8,914 teachers to schools this year.
The teachers also expressed concern about nonpayment of fees by parents because of the impacts of Covid 19. Implementation of CBC and Competency Based Assessment (CBA) were also cited as challenges.
